


Romantic Comedies

by wisdomeagle



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Background canon pairings, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Girls' Night, Invisible Third, Movie Night, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-01
Updated: 2005-05-01
Packaged: 2018-04-17 21:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4681361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdomeagle/pseuds/wisdomeagle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Girly movies and lessons learned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Romantic Comedies

**Author's Note:**

> For aliasagent in the [Friendship Ficathon](http://www.livejournal.com/users/estepheia/460761.html).

This is the fifth time this month they've attempted to have a Girls' Own Night. Buffy isn't sure why Willow keeps interpreting that to mean "Girls' Own, and bring Tara too." Okay. Tara's Willow's girlfriend. That she's gotten into her head. But she can't quite believe that Tara's Willow's... friend. ( _Best friend_.) She doesn't _want_ Tara to be Willow's best friend, because she, Buffy Summers, is Willow's best friend, has been since the day she rescued Willow from the bottom of the food chain four years ago, and though they've outgrown high school and its pettiness, she hasn't outgrown Buffiness, and sometimes Buffiness means being petty over friendship.

Especially when it means that their traditional romantic-comedies-and-ice-cream nights turn into strange lesbian movies filmed in black and white with lots of flashbacks and strange shots that might be breasts or might be thighs and Buffy can't tell. She always gets a headache when they watch those movies, but when she complains, Willow snaps at her and says, "I told you that you couldn't deal with me being gay! Tara likes this kind of movie!" 

There was one movie, with cheerleaders, that Buffy liked, although it made her think Dirty Wrong Bad Thoughts about Cordelia and Amy's mom, and the thoughts _would not go away_ , so she never requested that one again.

"Aren't there any _normal_ lesbian movies? Like, with a beginning and middle and end, and lots of yummy guys for the less, uh, adventurous among us?"

"Lesbianism is normal!" Buffy is getting just a wee bit tired of Willow's defensiveness, although it's a lot better than Willow's constant poutage over Oz.

So tonight is supposed to be just her and Willow, and she's stocked up on lots of romantic comedies. She even asked the clerk at the video store which actresses "a girl might find hot, if she liked that sort of thing. Not me! I mean -- a friend. She likes girls. And so..."

So there's a stack of videos on the coffee table in her mom's house, and her mom has been forcibly evicted and told to go have a life, and Buffy is trying to figure out how to make popcorn without resorting to the microwave when the doorbell rings.

Buffy throws open the door and has "Hey, Willow, my BFF!" on her lips but it's not. " _Tara_?"

"Uh, h-hi. W-willow said she'd b-be here eventually?"

"Oh." Buffy tries to force a smile, but she's peering anxiously beyond Tara to see if Willow can be here _soon_ , to straighten this out. 

Tara sits on her couch and reads the backs of the movie cases while Buffy runs around the kitchen looking for appropriate foodstuffs to feed three, and all the time thinking about exactly what she's going to say to Willow when she gets here, words like "deaf" and "rude" and "I thought we were _friends_."

But she never gets to deliver her lecture, because Willow never shows up, apologetic and flushed. After half an hour, Buffy calls Willow's house, but Ira tells her that Willow's at the library with her friend and won't be back till late, and she knows she's been lied to.

"Willow's not coming."

"Oh." Tara crosses her legs and curls into the couch. "D-did she say why?"

"She didn't say anything. Her dad says she's not coming. I think... I think she tricked us."

"M-maybe she wants..." Tara doesn't look at Buffy and talks very fast. "Maybe she wants us to get to know each other."

"Oh." She reaches for the bowl of popcorn. "Well, okay. We've got these movies, might as well watch them, right? And, um, do you wear nail polish or anything?" She holds up the bright red and dark purple bottles she'd picked out especially for her and Willow to play with.

"S-sure. Could be fun."

"Great!" She pops Bridget Jones's Diary into the VCR and grabs Tara's hand, feeling a moment of squeamish awkwardness at first, then remembering it's just Tara, Willow's friend, and she's obviously not going to try anything. And there are movies, and popcorn, and this doesn't have to be a total loss.

"So, did you like it?" Their silence during the movie has been distracting to Buffy, who's used to watching movies with Xander, who provides a running commentary of sarcasm and butt jokes, or Willow, who grips her arm at the scary parts, or Mom, who says things like, "So, who's that man again?"

"Yes," says Tara. "It was... it was sweet. I felt sorry for that other man, though. I mean, he wasn't very nice, but... I still felt bad."

"I thought it was sweet, though, the ending." Buffy sighed. "Do you and Willow watch this kind of movie a lot?"

"N-not really. We're usually busy. You know, doing other stuff. School, and m-magic. B-but sometimes we do."

"Must be nice, being able to watch romantic comedies with your girlfriend. Riley and I are more about the action movies, mostly so he can make fun of them. Or the horror movies, so I can make fun of them."

"Sounds fun." Buffy notices that Tara has a lovely smile. 

"And then Angel and I, we were all about really old movies, and Angel would always be like, 'I saw this when it first came out in 1917.'" Tara giggles a little and Buffy, encouraged, continues her Angel impression. "'I shook hands with Charlie Chaplin at the premiere of this film. Then I ate him.'" 

"Did he _really_?"

"No, of course not, silly! But that was the thing about being with Angel. You could never tell when he actually _had_ eaten someone."

"Having a demon for a lover... it must be... I mean, you'd never do that again, right? I b-bet W-w-willow would never -- never do that."

Buffy shrugs. "What, you worried that she'll go off with Oz again? I think her Oz days are over. She's clearly only got eyes for you now. It's... it's sweet. I'm glad to see her happy." She wishes she didn't sound so completely clichéd. "So, 'nother movie?"

"Ab-absolutely. Anything with se-se -- pretty actresses? Maybe Angelina Jolie?"

"I've got Tomb Raider right here," Buffy says, glad she guessed right. "Be glad we're not here with Riley. His jaw always hits the floor whenever there's an ass shot."

"M-mine too," Tara says, and Buffy almost dies. Tara's wearing the most innocent smile, though, and finally Buffy laughs.

"Actually, and don't tell Willow this, but... me three."

"There's hope for you yet," Tara says softly, and Buffy laughs again.

She's absolutely never, ever telling Willow how deviously clever she is. The praise would go right to her head, and the last thing they need is a devilishly evil Willow with a big head.

But as she curls into the couch, much later that night, she remembers that you never know what's to come. Tara told her that -- and she's beginning to think she could learn a lot from Tara.


End file.
